The use of wireless communication in today's environments is ubiquitous. It seems that everyone has at least one “smart” wireless device, such as a smart phone or tablet, and many have other types of mobile computing devices, such as laptops, notebooks, Chromebooks, etc., that support wireless communication. In addition to cellular and mobile computing, wireless communication technologies are used for other purposes, such as audio systems, portable telephone systems, screen casting, and peer-to-peer communication to name a few.
The most common wireless technologies include Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWAN) (e.g., LTE, HSPA+, UMTS, GPRS, generally associated with cellular networks), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), including Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac standards (commonly referred to as Wi-Fi™ WLANs) and Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), such as Bluetooth™. There are also wireless standards such as ZigBee™ that are used for Wireless Sensor Actor Networks (WSAN). Wireless standards are also defined for other types of wireless equipment.
The radio frequency (RF) (radio) bands used by the various wireless networks can be generally classified into two categories: licensed, and unlicensed. Most cellular networks operate in licensed bands, while most WLANs, WPANs, and WSANs operate using unlicensed bands. Some common radio bands are collectively referred to as industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, which include operations at 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz (commonly referred to as 2.4 GHz or 2450 MHz bands), and 5.725 GHz to 5.875 GHz (commonly referred to as 5.8 GHz or 5800 MHz bands). ISM bands generally may be used for unlicensed operation, although there are some licensed users for some of these bands. In addition, RF band operating at or near 5 GHz (commonly referred to as 5 GHz bands) are also frequently used. Wireless standards are also defined for other radio bands, generally including High Frequency (HF, 3-30 MHz), Very High Frequency (VHV, 30-300 MHz), Ultra High Frequency (UHF, 300 MHz-3 GHz), Super High Frequency (SHF 3-30 GHz), and Extremely High Frequency (EHF, 30-300 GHz).
When multiple devices are utilizing the same radio band or channel, wireless signals transmitted from a given device may interference with wireless signals transmitted from other devices. More generally, transmissions of wireless signals using Physical Layers (PHYs) utilizing the same or overlapping radio bands and/or channels present similar problems.
The examples provided herein of some prior or related systems and their associated limitations are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior systems will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the following Detailed Description.